Be Your Own Sports Psychologist

Combating pre-race anxiety.

Ask 100 top athletes to name the most important factor in any given performance, and you can bet at least 75 of them will say confidence, or something similar. Why is that? Surely natural talent and training are more important?

Maybe—but think of it like this: Talent, training, diet, and many other things add up to give a range of possible times that an athlete might run in a race. What that athlete actually achieves—within that range—is likely to be decided by psychological factors on race day. So I might know that, physically, I’m capable of running anything between 35 and 40 minutes for 10K, but if nerves get the better of me, you can bet it’ll be nearer the bottom of that range. For elite runners, who all train hard, eat right, and have great natural talent, that’s likely to make all the difference.

That doesn’t mean that a little sports psychology can’t benefit the average runner, though. Elites have run scores of races, so their mental skills are likely to be as honed as their physical ones, plus many have worked with sports psychologists anyway. But for the rest of us, that’s a luxury we can’t afford. So the ability to understand and apply a few basic concepts should help enormously.

Here’s the good news: there’s a wealth of research out there aimed at improving your mental approach to running. The bad news is very few runners bother to use it. Part of the problem is that sports psychology can get a little complicated, so what follows here is a simple breakdown of some key terms and concepts and then some advice on how to go about using them.

Anxiety

Every runner has experienced pre-race anxiety, and most will have let it affect their performance, but what exactly is anxiety? Perhaps the best definition was proposed by Jerome Kagan in a 1972 paper, "Motives and Development." He defines anxiety as "a threat caused by uncertainty multiplied by importance.’’ Athletes don’t get anxious when the outcome of an event is either certain or unimportant.

The more uncertain and the more important the event, the more anxiety will be produced. Kagan goes on to say that uncertainty is symptomatic of the human condition and that our attempt to resolve it forms part of our mission in life. This is an important point for two reasons. First, it offers clues as to why sport is so popular. The questions "will I win?’’ or "what time will I run?’’ can’t be answered with certainty, even though the desire to win or to run well may be huge. So we’re drawn to them for that very reason. Second, it shows that anxiety isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it means you care about your performance.

To illustrate the difference between cognitive and somatic anxiety, let’s turn to an example from another sport. In the 2004 French Open tennis final, Guillermo Coria faced fellow Argentine Gaston Gaudio. Coria won the first two sets easily, as Gaudio played poorly. Afterward, Gaudio explained that he’d become nervous because he doubted whether he was good enough to win.

This is classic cognitive anxiety: negative thoughts and poor self-belief leading to a dramatic dip in performance. However, Gaudio actually came back to win the match, because when Coria came within sight of victory, his legs cramped up and he couldn’t run or serve properly. Afterward, Coria struggled to find a reason for his physical collapse, though he did say, "maybe I got nervous.’’ If this was the case, I’d suggest it was somatic rather than cognitive anxiety. He was two sets ahead and playing well, so it’s unlikely negative thoughts or poor self-belief troubled him. However, on the cusp of such a great triumph, the nervous symptoms described above (increased heart rate, for example) would have been going into overdrive, and this might have triggered the physiological breakdown.

A little analysis of this type can be useful because the methods used to combat cognitive and somatic anxiety are very different. For example, in cases of nerves you’ll invariably hear the advice, "take some deep breaths.’’ This is helpful if the problem is somatic, because deep breaths slow the heart rate, but it’ll do little for cognitive anxiety—though there are some excellent methods for dealing with cognitive anxiety, which we’ll cover later.

Confidence

Another important concept is that anxiety has a directional component. Whatever form it takes (somatic, cognitive or both), how an athlete reacts to anxiety is often more important than the anxiety itself. Research studies show that the intensity of anxiety in a group of athletes prior to competition is often reasonably uniform, but the way in which the anxiety is perceived can be vastly different. Here are a couple of genuine examples:

"I knew I was going to do badly because I’d been thinking about the race for so long, and when I turned up I just felt scared. As soon as I started doing my warm-up I felt exhausted, and I knew my mind had wrecked it for me again.’’

"I felt nervous, sure, but I needed to. When the nerves came I was pleased because I know I need to be a little nervous to bring out the best in me. So I kind of register the nerves and then use them to focus.’’

The first of those quotes came from an average runner at my club named Dan, whom we’ll return to later. The second came from Olympian Michael Johnson. Notice that both register their anxiety but interpret it differently. It doesn’t take a psychologist to work out which attitude works best.

"In any performance, an athlete will get nervous because there are always consequences, and some will be bad,’’ said Louise Friend, one of England’s top sports psychologists, who has worked with the British triathlon team, among others. "It’s the athlete’s interpretation of the nerves which is important, and for each athlete there’s an optimum level of anxiety. It’s crucial that the athlete learns to find that level.’’

Finding the right level of anxiety will lead to that most precious of sporting commodities: confidence. A confident athlete channels anxiety positively and therefore often performs better. This is a vital point, because while certain athletes are predisposed to respond negatively to anxiety, it doesn’t normally follow that these athletes are totally lacking in confidence. Very few athletes can say they’ve never felt confident, though they may say they’ve never felt confident before a big race. The challenge is to find scenarios that build confidence and create these prior to the big race.

The Cusp Catastrophe Model

Before finishing this brief theoretical roundup, it might help to look at some specific theories. One is called the "Cusp Catastrophe Model’’ and was formulated by Lew Hardy and John Fazey in a 1987 paper.

To illustrate this theory, let’s return to our troubled club runner, Dan. His story is a familiar one. He has an end-of-year goal: to win the club championship. Through the winter he trains well, and his times steadily improve. He starts the racing season in a manner consistent with his training and posts some good times. But as it gets closer to the big one, his times tail off slightly. They’re still fast enough to beat his club-mates and win the title, but they’re not as good as early season. Then, come the big day, he’s unable to control his anxiety and performs poorly, finishing well down the field.

Hardy and Fazey’s theory would explain Dan’s problem in the following

way: When anxiety is low (for example, in training) physiological arousal will interact with performance in the shape of a horseshoe, that is, the more physiologically aroused an athlete is, the better his or her performance will be up to a certain point, when it will tail off gradually. But when anxiety is high, increased physiological arousal will be beneficial up to a point, at which time any further increase will be catastrophic (see Figure 1).

So in Dan’s case, the high anxiety level of the big race might have led to an actual physical catastrophe, causing him to register a performance outside of his normal range.

The Processing Efficiency Theory

Another model is the "Processing Efficiency Theory.’’ It is described by Christopher Janelle in a 2001 paper:

"When confronted with anxiety-inducing circumstances, the efficiency by which information is processed decreases, potentially resulting in poor performance.’’

This theory is complemented by an interesting experiment performed by Richard S.W. Masters using golf putting. Masters took two large groups of beginners and had them putt repeatedly from a certain distance. The first group was bombarded with putting lessons, while the second group was left alone. After a while the groups were tested on their performance. Masters found that the group that was constantly bombarded with information (even though it was good advice) suffered in high-anxiety situations and performed much worse than the group that was left alone.

Athletes suffering from anxiety often say, "I couldn’t stop thinking about it.’’ In other words, they’re constantly processing (often negative) thoughts. According to the Processing Efficiency Theory, this will require energy. Masters says that while in golf, players may maintain their performance when anxious by employing extra energy, for a marathon runner, any extra energy expended is likely to be catastrophic.

So, now That we’ve got some basic knowledge of sports psychology, how can we use it to improve? The first thing to recognize is that anxiety is multi-faceted, and everyone is different. There are no general rules, and what works for one person may not work for you. Having said that, there are specific techniques that work for different types of anxiety problems, so a little self-analysis is a good start. In particular, it’s important to establish whether your anxiety is primarily cognitive or somatic.

For many, the problem is cognitive. Runners worry about letting people down or looking stupid, or even simply failing to achieve all they’d hoped for. Michael Martin, Chief Sports Psychologist at the Australian Institute of Sport, suggests a central cause of cognitive anxiety is the tendency to focus on results.

"Anxiety starts because athletes think about outcomes, like winning medals, making times, impressing their coach, family or whatever,’’ says Martin. "Because outcome thoughts are so powerful, little can be done to stop them drifting in, but it’s vital to get back from these thoughts, which can ultimately undermine self-belief and concentration.’’

Friend advocates a method for achieving this. She suggests using "event goals’’ rather than "outcome goals.’’ That is, provide goals that you can control, which do not contain uncertainty—remember, if achievement is certain, there can’t be anxiety. For example, you might say: "in this race, my goal is a higher knee lift.’’ Thus, attention is taken away from the outcome of the race, which cannot be controlled, to something that can: a higher knee lift.

Other athletes troubled by cognitive anxiety have had success using pre-race mental routines. One involves the athlete visualizing a calm place free of worry. Another involves visualizing the last really successful performance. Other people respond well to mantras—a word or phrase repeated endlessly that blocks out other thoughts. Remember the Processing Efficiency Theory: the more thoughts an athlete has, the more energy is expended.

If your problem is somatic, then relaxation techniques are recommended. Deep breaths, shaking loose your muscles, and meditation are all methods for reducing somatic anxiety. Performing another activity, like yoga or even stretching, can help to lessen physical symptoms. Some people find the situation worsens when they’re on their own; simply chatting with friends can cause the symptoms to abate.

Building Confidence

Reducing anxiety is really only half the battle, because in any meaningful performance, a residue will remain. The really crucial thing is to channel that anxiety positively; to turn it into confidence.

Confidence (or the lack of it) will be born of experience. As humans, when faced with uncertainty, we try to gain information to resolve it. So, faced with a 10K race, your brain will take the last example of a 10K race and use that to resolve the uncertainty. Therefore, experience can be both beneficial and detrimental. For example, if you ran poorly last time, your brain will worry that you’ll do it again and will channel anxiety negatively. The answer is to always go into a big race on the back of a confidence-boosting performance. This is easier said than done, but again, you can learn from past situations.

To give a real-life example, let’s return to our troubled athlete, Dan. Coming out of winter training, Dan does well. Why? While training, anxiety is low, so he performs to his natural ability. He posts times that demonstrate his potential. Therefore, going into his first race, his experiences are positive. Again, anxiety is low because this isn’t the big race, so there’s nothing to hamper his confidence—hence the positive result. The trouble is, he then goes through a series of races prior to the big day. Any athlete will tell you that it’s impossible to be at your best every race. For someone like Dan, whose confidence is fragile, one bad race may be enough to destroy the positive outlook that he’d constructed. It might be nothing to do with anxiety—maybe he picked up a slight virus. The point is, whatever causes the poor race, a period of rest or tapering, may not be good enough. Though he may be physically recovered, the confidence is gone. His most recent experience is a poor one, and that’s the information he processes to catastrophic effect on the big day.

The following year, Dan set the same goal: to win his club championship. But this time he adjusted his year to finish his training period closer to the big event. He did just a couple of races beforehand and ran slightly within himself, always feeling he had more in the tank. This is another good confidence-boosting technique. If you finish strongly and know there’s more to come, you remain positive about the future. Dan never suffered the dip in confidence of the previous year, and come the big day, he ran to his potential, winning the race comfortably.

This is a nice example of how a bit of psychological analysis can lead to a positive result, but generally it’s unlikely to be that easy. Notice how Dan’s solution conflicts with conventional wisdom. Athletes usually run a series of races before the big one. It may be that without knowing it, Dan was in better physical shape after the longer competitive season, but if his confidence was shot, it mattered little. Remember—find what works and go with it.

Nick Morgan was Bloomberg’s chief European tennis and track and field reporter for four years and is now a freelance writer. He has written for the New York Times, Sydney Morning, and International Herald Tribune, among others.